ARAB AFFAIRS - May 24 - Israel Downs Lebanese Plane.

In the area of Mikhmoret beach (north of Tel Aviv), Israeli forces shoot down a Lebanese civilian Cessna plane, with Estefan Nicolian, 43, a student at a flying school in Beirut on board, they feared was on a suicide mission. The air force sent warplanes and helicopters in pursuit of the aircraft it said had crossed from Lebanon while Israeli forces were on heightened alert against threatened attacks by Lebanese guerrillas. When efforts to radio the aircraft failed and warning shots went unheeded, Israeli pilots shot it down, army officials said. Witnesses on Israeli television said that the plane's wreckage rained down on a building at a navy training school. The dead pilot plunged through the roof of the instructors' lounge. The army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz said: "Because of the very serious threats coming from Lebanon, especially from Islamic terrorist groups such as Hizbollah, there has been a sort of possibility of a terror attack coming from the air or coming from the sea". He said the Israeli Air Force tracked the plane from its takeoff in Beirut and tried for 20 minutes to contact the pilot and verify his intentions. As the plane got closer and closer to main cities in Israel, "we decided to shoot it down". The Lebanese Army gave a different version of the incident.

Its statement said: "He (the pilot) circled in the direction of south Lebanon, where he was intercepted by four Israeli jet fighters which forced him south. He entered the airspace of occupied Palestine and contact with him was lost". In Beirut, Pres. Lahoud urged a reassessment of the Middle East peace process and accused Israel of driving the region to war. Lahoud said Lebanon would continue to oppose Israel's presence in the Shebaa Farms. He said: "Acing this sad reality, the region finds itself on the brink of an all-out confrontation as a direct consequence of Israel's intransigence". Israeli troops kill a deaf Palestinian teenager Shadi Siyam in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after the army tried to enter a refugee camp near the border fence with Egypt. He was shot through the heart with a live bullet, and neighbours said he was standing in front of his house, unaware of the gun battle. Israeli tanks fire shells while thrusting into another PA-controlled area of the Gaza Strip.